Do citizens want different kind of parks?

[pretorian]

I seem to have read on some forum that citizens prefer diversity when raising desirability. That is, plopping down 50 or so of the same park/playground/plaza will have a lower effect than building different types.

Other than a purely aesthetic point of view, does it matter how you mix your parks? I've been checking this list out: http://www.simcitycentral.net/html/cap-relief-list.html but havent found an answer to my question.

[Blebekblebek]

just aesthetic as far as I know, the main point from parks are for better air enviroment which in this game the bigger the park the better the effects even with same amount of tiles used.
and if the location is more denser it increases the value of the land, on vannilla the effects actually better if you plant the tree if you just want better air quality, just drag your mouse little bit up/down/left/right in empty tiles to get better effects to make more dense.

for example making park in Industry zone makes huges different for air quality, but since it's placed on Industry zone it will have less/or no visitor at all, but the effects is there, better air, and higher land value.

Honestly, just look up for mods if you want something far better for efficiency at this point, the game it self has so much flaw design it's an old game and it's been abandoned long time ago.

[Cahos Rahne Veloza]

SC4 SIMs are non-existent non-simulated entities, which is a good thing because both SC2013 and Cities Skylines have proven that simulating every insignificant SIM in a city builder city is detrimental to the game's performance aspects.

Who really gives a damn about every damn John who needs to find work, when the "Original Essence" of what makes a city builder a city builder is the opportunity to let the player create and design a city which ever way he wants to.

Rant moment said, SC4's parks only adds to land value and lessens air polution.

[WellMad]

The ONLY park you should place is first park in your list, has 1-3 trees on it I forget the name, all others crappy, it basicly removes pollution in a 10-10 block around it, by a %, also it incrases the rich people in that area, cus they LOVE parks =].I normaly Place it behind or next to a subway station due to the fact normaly loads of houses or people near it =]. also you Use Small plaza's in your office/shopping areas. and thats it =]

[Cahos Rahne Veloza]

There are far more nicer looking Custom parks over at Simtropolis and SC4Devotion. For one, try doing a search for "Paeng Sandstone Parks".

[Vedtraed]

Different kinds of parks have different so called "cap reliefs", where larger and/or more expensive park types provide greater reliefs. However, if you simply keep building a lot of them, what kind you build is not that important. I tend to build a lot of different park types since I think it looks better. Parks are indeed important, since they:

• Raise land value and desirability (important for higher-wealth development)
  
• Decrease air pollution (freely planted trees also do this)
  
• Work as stage and demand cap relievers

About that last point, buildings in SC4 are separated into growth stages, where higher stages have higher density, thus providing more homes/workplaces. There is also the demand cap system, where more residents and workers won't move into your city unless certain conditions are met. These systems are opaque to the player, instead giving you hints through the news ticker when something's amiss.

In vanilla SC4 RH, the only buildings that won't develop unless a park is built within 20 squares are stage 3 R$$$ (mid-sized high wealth residential).

Demand caps always begin a pre-set values for a city, and certain buildings such as parks can increase (or "relieve") them by a certain amount. You can find the full table here[community.simtropolis.com].


EDIT: Completely missed that you have already checked out cap reliefs, must have been tired when I read your post or something. But no, I don't think they ever put the system for mixing parks into use. The SimCity 4 engine is full of features that were never fully implemented or put into use due to time constraints during development.

[mostgreatpontiff]

Originally posted by Blebekblebek:

just aesthetic as far as I know, the main point from parks are for better air enviroment which in this game the bigger the park the better the effects even with same amount of tiles used.
and if the location is more denser it increases the value of the land, on vannilla the effects actually better if you plant the tree if you just want better air quality, just drag your mouse little bit up/down/left/right in empty tiles to get better effects to make more dense.

for example making park in Industry zone makes huges different for air quality, but since it's placed on Industry zone it will have less/or no visitor at all, but the effects is there, better air, and higher land value.

Honestly, just look up for mods if you want something far better for efficiency at this point, the game it self has so much flaw design it's an old game and it's been abandoned long time ago.

Abandon? Lol this game has a crazy active community, including another upcoming release of NAM. Visit Simtropolis and SC4Devotion, very very active communities, new mods still being released on a daily basis.

[NetPCDoc]

Parks, similar to transit, can encounter the 'diminishing returns' feature ... within a given parks' "active radius".

Parks do have an 'Area of Effect' and after the third park of the same type within a given 'AoE' you may encounter the diminishing returns effect. Most players will space out parks, and therefore will not notice said diminishing returns effect ... but if you crowd enough of the same size&type of parks too close together you may actually encounter this.

Personally, I like to locate my residential neighborhoods around an eight-by-eight (8x8) tile civic block, that contains a medical clinic, branch library, small fire station, skateboard park, medium police station, basketball court, 2x2 playground, tennis court, high school and elementary school. Originally (early-times in a city) I will use the standard schools, and expand them to the Rush Hour 'Large' editions when there is enough population to support the larger schools. (After adding transit - around such a civic block - will have a square footprint of 10 to 12 tiles).

And please do remember - most parks do double as a pedestrian pathway!

[Blebekblebek]

Originally posted by mostgreatpontiff:

Abandon? Lol this game has a crazy active community, including another upcoming release of NAM. Visit Simtropolis and SC4Devotion, very very active communities, new mods still being released on a daily basis.

Nice way to revive old threads.

Anyway, abandoned means it's been abandoned by developers, not community.
The last update was the release of Rush Hour and that's it, it's been years ago. Even the re-release it on steam doesn't change the fact that it's never been updated, I didn't own it on steam, I bought this game back in 2004.